Dimanche le 19 mai
Belle journée, presque pas de nuages. Rien en vu sauf de l'eau...
On sent toujours le mouvement du bateau, c'est pas régulier, c'est comme des petits coups qui le fait bouger dans tous les sens. De temps en temps, il y a un mouvement plus important qui fait que tu marches un peu plus croche que d'habitude... on dirait qu'on est toujours un peu soul dans notre démarche.
J'ai fait le tour du pont principal 5 fois, près de 2 km selon mes calcules. On mange trop et il faut bouger un peu.
Personne ne travaille sur le pont en cette journée de dimanche.
Pendant l'après-midi, les vagues sont un peu plus hautes et le bateau bouge plus. Le capitaine nous a dit qu'il y avait des dauphins en vue... nous avons tout manqué tranquille dans notre cabine en train de lire.
Un bateau conteneur en route pour New York nous a croisés au nord... assez loin.
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| Navire de conteneur - container shipt |
Les vagues encore un peu plus hautes et encore des nuages. Nous avons essayé de marcher sur le pont principal mais plusieurs membres de l'équipage travaillent sur les réparations et l'entretien du bateau, nous avons donc attendu en fin de leur journée de travail à 17h pour faire nos tours du pont. C'est remarquable comment le pont principal bouge moins que les étages supérieurs de la superstructure ou on a de la difficulté de marcher en ligne droite ou même que se tenir en place. Il y a une rumeur que la météo va s'empirer dans les jours à venir.
Nous avons vus 4 autres cargo aujourd'hui, 2 en route vers l'ouest nous a croisés au sud, et le matin nous avons dépassé un bateau allant vers l'est et en fin d'après-midi un cargo conteneur nous a dépassés.
Ce matin nous étions au sud de Cape Breton un peu près.
Mardi le 21 mai.
La journée s'annonce pareille aux précédentes, nuages dispersés.
Cette vie hors du temps nous plaît. Suzanne apprécie davantage cette vie temporaire. Grant est moins habitué à l'oisiveté :-).
Deux autres bateaux nous ont croisés filant vers l'est... mais la nouvelle de la journée était les dauphins. Au début de l'après-midi nous en avons vu au moins un trentaine dans plusieurs groupes qui ont passé des deux côtés de notre bateau!
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| Des dauphins / Dolphins |
Vers 19h, quand nous sommes sortis pour faire notre promenade quotidienne sur le pont principal, nous avons revu d'autres dauphins... plusieurs sautaient hors de l'eau et plongeaient pendant quelques minutes... et puis nous avons vu les expirations des baleines!!! D'abord assez loin... mais il y en avait près du bateau: plus d'une dizaine d'après le nombre d'expirations que nous avons vues.
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| Une baleine / A whale |
Nous sommes montés jusqu'au bridge pour mieux voir et après nous avons parlé avec l'officier en poste. Il nous a confié que c'était la première fois qu'il voyait autant de baleines. Nous avons regardé la carte avec le trajet du bateau et nous avons remarqué que nous traversions un coin des «Grand Banks» peu profond (100 à 200 mètres plutôt que plus de 2000 mètres) ce qui explique que des dauphins, des baleines et des oiseaux pêchaient.
Nous sommes à plus de 200 milles nautique au sud-est de Terre-Neuve (Canada).
Sur le bateau, il y a une table de ping pong. Des membres du personnel y sont fort habiles malgré les ondulation du bateau. Un match a eu lieu entre le 2e ingénieur Chinois et le passager Etats-Uniens. La Chine contre les Etats-Unis donc. La Chine est vainqueur. Mais lorsque nous observons le jeu de deux membres de l'équipage, leur jeu est fascinant: rapide, précis et agressif comme des champions.
Sunday May 19
A beautiful day, almost no clouds. Nothing to see except water...
We still feel the ships motion, regular small movements in all directions. From time to time there is a bigger movement which makes us walk a little more crooked than is normal... like being slightly drunk.
Grant walked around the main deck 5 times, about 2 km. We eat too much so we have to start exercising. Sunday is a day off so no one is working on deck.
During the afternoon the waves are a bit higher and the ship is moving a bit more. The captain told us that he saw some dolphins... we missed them since we were quietly reading in our cabin.
A container ship bound for New York passed north of us, at a good distance.
We still feel the ships motion, regular small movements in all directions. From time to time there is a bigger movement which makes us walk a little more crooked than is normal... like being slightly drunk.
Grant walked around the main deck 5 times, about 2 km. We eat too much so we have to start exercising. Sunday is a day off so no one is working on deck.
During the afternoon the waves are a bit higher and the ship is moving a bit more. The captain told us that he saw some dolphins... we missed them since we were quietly reading in our cabin.
A container ship bound for New York passed north of us, at a good distance.
Monday May 20
The waves are a bit higher and it is cloudy again. We tried to take a walk on the main deck during the afternoon, but several crew members are doing repairs and maintenance on the ship, so we waited till the end of their work day at 5 pm to do our laps. The main deck moves noticably less than the upper decks where we find it difficult to walk, or even to stand still.
There is a rumor that the weather is going to worsen in the next days.
We saw 4 other freighters today, 2 headed west passed south of us, and in the morning we passed a ship headed east, then at the end of the afternoon a container ship headed east passed us.
This morning we were at a point about due south of Cape Breton.
Tuesday May 21
The day presented itself like the others, partially cloudy.
This timeless life pleases us. Suzanne appreciates this temporary life... Grant is less used to such idleness :-).
The waves are a bit higher and it is cloudy again. We tried to take a walk on the main deck during the afternoon, but several crew members are doing repairs and maintenance on the ship, so we waited till the end of their work day at 5 pm to do our laps. The main deck moves noticably less than the upper decks where we find it difficult to walk, or even to stand still.
There is a rumor that the weather is going to worsen in the next days.
We saw 4 other freighters today, 2 headed west passed south of us, and in the morning we passed a ship headed east, then at the end of the afternoon a container ship headed east passed us.
This morning we were at a point about due south of Cape Breton.
Tuesday May 21
The day presented itself like the others, partially cloudy.
This timeless life pleases us. Suzanne appreciates this temporary life... Grant is less used to such idleness :-).
Two more ships passed us heading east... but the news of the day is the dolphins. In the early afternoon we saw about 30 of them in several groups who passed both sides of our ship!
Around 7 pm, when we were on our daily walk on the main deck we saw more of them... several jumped and dove, disappearing for several minutes... then we saw whale spouts !!! (Spouts are what whalers see just before they yell "Thar she blows!"). First a long way off, then there were others close to the ship: about a dozen according to the number of spouts that we saw.
We climbed up to the bridge to better see. The officer on watch (Third Mate) told us that it was the first time he had seen so many whales. We had a look at the chart with the ships route marked on it ans saw that we were crossing a corner of the Grand Banks which are relatively shallow (100 to 200 meters rather than more than 2000 meters) which explains why the dolphins, whales and even birds were fishing there.
We are about 200 nautical miles south-east of Newfoundland (Canada).
The ship has a ping-pong table. Certain crew members are very good despite the movements of the ship. We watched a match between the Chinese 2nd engineer and the US passenger Josh, in this US - China confrontation China won. It is fascinating to observe the matches between the crew members... rapid, precise and aggressive like real champions.
Around 7 pm, when we were on our daily walk on the main deck we saw more of them... several jumped and dove, disappearing for several minutes... then we saw whale spouts !!! (Spouts are what whalers see just before they yell "Thar she blows!"). First a long way off, then there were others close to the ship: about a dozen according to the number of spouts that we saw.
We climbed up to the bridge to better see. The officer on watch (Third Mate) told us that it was the first time he had seen so many whales. We had a look at the chart with the ships route marked on it ans saw that we were crossing a corner of the Grand Banks which are relatively shallow (100 to 200 meters rather than more than 2000 meters) which explains why the dolphins, whales and even birds were fishing there.
We are about 200 nautical miles south-east of Newfoundland (Canada).
The ship has a ping-pong table. Certain crew members are very good despite the movements of the ship. We watched a match between the Chinese 2nd engineer and the US passenger Josh, in this US - China confrontation China won. It is fascinating to observe the matches between the crew members... rapid, precise and aggressive like real champions.
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